Tippi Hedren - Biography - IMDb Tippi Hedren Biography Showing all 72 items Jump to: Overview (3) | Mini Bio (1) | Spouse (3) | Trade Mark (3) | Trivia (47) | Personal Quotes (13) | Salary (2) Overview (3) 5' 4" (1.63 m) Mini Bio (1) Tippi Hedren was born Nathalie Kay Hedren in New Ulm, Minnesota, to Dorothea Henrietta (Eckhardt) and Bernard Carl Hedren, who ran a general store. Her father was of Swedish descent and her mother was of German and Norwegian ancestry. Tippi was working as a New York fashion model when she married her first husband, Peter Griffith , in 1952. They had a daughter, Melanie Griffith , on August 9, 1957. After the marriage ended in 1961, Tippi moved to California and was discovered by legendary director Alfred Hitchcock . He put her under personal contract and cast her in The Birds (1963). Her performance in the film earned her a Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer.

Her second film was Hitchcock's Marnie (1964), where she played a challenging and difficult role of a frigid, habitual thief opposite Sean Connery . The professional relationship with Hitchcock ended with mutual bitterness and disappointment towards the end of shooting, and that year she married her then-agent, Noel Marshall . Tippi and her husband Marshall collected big cats and other wildlife for the film Roar (1981), which they starred in and produced. The film took 11 years and $17 million to make, but it only made $2 million worldwide. Nevertheless, the film was a turning point in her life; she became actively involved in animal rights, as well as a wide variety of humanitarian and environmental causes. Her marriage to Marshall ended in 1982, and in 1985 she married her third husband, businessman Luis Barrenechea. They divorced in 1995. Tippi has devoted much time and effort to charitable causes: she is a volunteer International Relief Coordinator for "Food for the Hungry".

She has traveled worldwide to set up relief programs following earthquakes, hurricanes, famine and war, and has received numerous awards for her efforts, including the "Humanitarian Award" presented to her by the Baha'i Faith. As for animal causes, she is founder and President of "The Roar Foundation". Onscreen, she continues to work frequently in films, theater and TV. She appeared in I Woke Up Early the Day I Died (1998), finally bringing to the big screen the last screenplay written by the late Edward D. Wood Jr. in 1974 (and featuring Wood regulars Maila Nurmi and Conrad Brooks , just about the only surviving members of Wood's stock company). She also enjoyed playing comedic roles, such as an abortion rights activist in Alexander Payne 's satire Citizen Ruth (1996) and slapping Jude Law in I Heart Huckabees (2004). Tippi's contributions to world cinema have been honored with Life Achievement awards in France at The Beauvais Film Festival Cinemalia 1994; in Spain, by The Fundacion Municipal De Cine in 1995; and at the Riverside International Film Festival in 2007.

In 1999, Tippi was honored as "Woman of Vision" by Women in Film and Video in Washington, D.C., and received the Presidential Medal for her work in film from Hofstra University. - IMDb Mini Biography By: kdhaisch@aol.com Spouse (3) An unaffected, icy mid-period "Hitchcock blond" Voluptuous figure Deep sultry voice Trivia (47) At the end of shooting Mister Kingstreet's War (1971), she discovered that the big cats used in the production had no place to go and would likely languish in small cages. This prompted her to obtain a parcel of land on her own to establish a home with a natural setting for retired big cats. She named it Shambala and it exists to this day. Gave birth to her only child at age 27, a daughter Melanie Griffith on August 9, 1957. Child's father was her 1st ex-husband, Peter Griffith . Presides over The Roar Foundation, an animal preserve outside of Los Angeles. Director Alfred Hitchcock unsuccessfully pursued a relationship with her during the filming of Marnie (1964).

Tried to be a vegetarian but it didn't work out for her. She named one of her housecats after Sean Connery , her co-star in Marnie (1964). Lobbying for passage of Shambala Wild Animal Protection Act. Participated in panel at University of Illinois on "Hitchcock, Women and Terror", October 2001. Her first television commercial was for a cigarette brand in the early 1950s. She learned to smoke for the commercial, because she felt viewers would know if she was faking it. Her smoking habit lasted for 15 years until her daughter, actress Melanie Griffith , then 10 years old, came to her after a school health lecture and begged her to stop. Received a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7060 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on January 30, 2003. Alfred Hitchcock saw her in a 1962 commercial aired during the Today (1952) show and cast her in The Birds (1963).

In the commercial for a diet drink, she is seen walking down a street and a man whistles at her slim, attractive figure, and she turns her head with an acknowledging smile. In the opening scene of The Birds (1963), the same thing happens as she walks toward the bird shop. This was an inside joke by Hitchcock. Former mother-in-law of Steven Bauer , Don Johnson and Antonio Banderas . Operates an exotic animal sanctuary which prompted her testimony in February 2005 in Riverside Superior Court. Hedren made a complaint regarding animal cruelty by a tiger rescuer and was told by U.S. Department of Agriculture that there were not enough inspectors to respond to her complaint. She eventually made room for a lion rather than have it go to the rescuer. She stated she felt like she was walking through a trash dump. Her store owner father, Bernard Hedren, was of Swedish descent, and her school teacher mother, Dorathea (Eckhardt), was of half German and half Norwegian ancestry. Friend of Linda Blair , Rod Taylor and Diane McBain .

She met with Alfred Hitchcock and his wife Alma Reville for the final time in London, England, in 1966, while she was filming Charles Chaplin 's last film, A Countess from Hong Kong (1967). They took her to tea at Claridge's. The atmosphere was tense because she knew Hitchcock was upset that she had been cast in what was expected to be a big film, and he was unable to hide his bitterness. Her performance as Melanie Daniels in The Birds (1963) is ranked #86 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time. British neo-progressive band Landmarq have a song titled "Tippi Hedren" on their 1992 album "Solitary Witness". Attended Suzanne Pleshette 's funeral in 2008. They starred together in The Birds (1963). One of her favorite sweet treats is Marnie's red velvet cake, which she named after her character from the film of the same name Marnie (1964).

She graciously provided the recipe for this three-layer cake to a website called high-societea.com, which specializes in articles on tea and accompanying treats. Requested director Alfred Hitchcock to give her the fur coat that she wore in The Birds (1963), and he graciously gave it to her but charged it to the production company. Eventually, she stopped wearing fur after she became an animal rights activist. Found it touching when Sean Connery , her leading man from Marnie (1964), publicly said that she was underrated while almost everyone in Hollywood was overrated. Of all her films, Marnie (1964) continues to be her favorite film, because of the complex title character. This is even more telling, considering all the problems that reportedly took place during the filming, which spelled the end of her professional relationship with the film's director Alfred Hitchcock , as well as the mixed critical reception and the indifferent box office results upon the film's release.

In most of her films (and in all of her films before 1982 except Tiger by the Tail (1970), her character's name starts with an M: "Melanie Daniels" in The Birds (1963), "Marnie Edgar" in Marnie (1964), "Martha Mears" in A Countess from Hong Kong (1967), "Marla Oaks" in Satan's Harvest (1970), "Mary Kingstreet" in Mister Kingstreet's War (1971), "Margaret Tenhausen" in The Harrad Experiment (1973), "Madelaine" in Roar (1981), "Marcia Stevens" in Inevitable Grace (1994), "Maylinda Austed" in I Woke Up Early the Day I Died (1998), "Martha" in The Darklings (1999), "Michelle Labner" in Searching for Haizmann (2003), "Mary" in Dark Wolf (2003), "Mary Jane" in I Heart Huckabees (2004), and "Minnie" in Dead Write

 (2007).

Bridget Fonda , who played her daughter in the straight-to-cable film Break Up (1998), gushed to her about how she had watched Marnie (1964) "a million times". She was supposed to play the leads in Bedtime Story (1964) (opposite David Niven and Marlon Brando ), Mirage (1965) (opposite Gregory Peck and Walter Matthau ), and Fahrenheit 451 (1966) (opposite Oskar Werner ), but Hitchcock told the directors and producers that she wasn't available to work with them. Shirley Jones , Diane Baker , and Julie Christie eventually played the parts she was considered for. Actress Sienna Miller portrayed her in the cable movie, The Girl (2012), which dealt with Tippi's three years with Alfred Hitchcock . She told Miller to portray her as strong, since she rejected Hitchcock's advances, even though it meant the end of her career as a leading lady. She said she was happy with Miller's portrayal. Met President John F. Kennedy once, when he was on vacation, as she was, in the South of France.

In her memoir, she claimed that he wanted to spend the night with her, but she declined, since they were both married to other people. Several years later, she was driving to her horse-riding lesson in preparation for her role in Marnie (1964), when she learned about the President's assassination. She said that she was "stunned, and very angry", that the assassination could have happened. Is a fan of actor Johnny Depp and named one of her house cats after him. Even though, she hasn't met him, her then son-in-law Antonio Banderas acted with him in Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003), and her grand daughter Dakota Johnson appeared in two films with him, 21 Jump Street (2012) and Black Mass (2015). She turned down the starring role in Eye of the Cat (1969) which was later played by Gayle Hunnicutt . In the biographical movie The Girl (2012), Tippi (played by Sienna Miller ) explained to Alfred Hitchcock (played by Toby Jones ) that "Tippi" is a nickname for "Tupsa", meaning "little girl" or "sweetheart".

Was directed by 5 Academy Awards winners: Alfred Hitchcock (he won the Irving Thalberg Memorial Award, thus qualifying him as an Academy Award winner); Charles Chaplin , John Schlesinger , Alexander Payne and Billy Bob Thornton (he left her scenes on the cutting room floor in Jayne Mansfield's Car (2012)). Dropped out of the film House of Good and Evil (2013) at the last minute because of illness. Her part was recast with actress Marietta Marich . Director Sean Baker considered casting Tippi and her real-life granddaughter Dakota Johnson together in his film Starlet (2012) before deciding on Besedka Johnson and Dree Hemingway . The media commonly misreported her birth year as 1935 even though she was actually born in 1930. What makes it puzzling is that there was always direct evidence to prove her correct age, since she looked like a nineteen-year-old, not a fourteen-year-old in her very first film The Petty Girl (1950) and in 1964, Time magazine accurately reported her age as 34, not 29.

After she publicly celebrated her 75th birthday in 2005, since then all the media outlets started accurately reporting her age. The June 11, 1969, and also Aug. 20, editions of Variety, in its Hollywood Production Pulse column, shows Tippi Hedren starring with Richard Crenna and Robert Conrad in the movie Seven Against Kansas, directed by David Friedkin, which started filming June 10, 1969, in Almeria, Spain. No evidence if the film was ever completed. Aunt of Robert Hanzlik (b. October 8, 1954) via her sister Patty. She turned down a cameo role in The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990) that starred her daughter Melanie Griffith , because she had just done a cameo role in another film of Melanie's titled Pacific Heights (1990), and she didn't want to appear in all of her daughter's films, only on special occasion. Younger sister of Patricia "Patty" Davis (b. March 31, 1926), who gave birth to five children of her own.

She named one of them Tipper, in honor of Tippi. Daughter of Bernard (June 13, 1893-April 1, 1979) and Dorothea (née Eckhardt) Hedren (July 14, 1899-October 30, 1994). Both were born and raised in Minnesota. In her memoir, she claimed that Marlon Brando wanted to have an affair with her during A Countess from Hong Kong (1967), but she turned him down, since she was married. She wrote that he didn't hold the rejection against her. Many years later, she named one of her house cats after him.

She claims that she never had affairs with her leading men, even though they were hot and sexy, such as Sean Connery , Marlon Brando , Burt Reynolds , Michael Keaton , Mark Harmon , Jude Law , Leslie Nielsen , Rod Taylor , Ben Gazzara , Fernando Lamas , Don Johnson , Jeffrey Hunter , Lloyd Bochner , Robert Wagner , James Brolin , William Petersen , Christopher George , John Saxon , David McCallum , Bill Bixby , George Montgomery , Ken Howard , and Mahershala Ali . She became friends with writer William Peter Blatty in the early 1970s and named one of her lions Billy after him. He gave her a copy of his unpublished novel "The Exorcist" and she was so absorbed reading it, that she woke up her then-husband, an agent Noel Marshall , in the middle of the night and told him that he should represent Blatty in publishing the novel and the film adaptation. She took the photo of the author for the first edition novel's back jacket.

The 1971 novel became a bestseller and Marshall would be credited as 'Executive Producer' for the film adaptation, also titled The Exorcist (1973), where he was supposed to receive 15% of the profits. When the film became a blockbuster, Blatty refused to give the profits, since he never signed the written contract, but only initiated it. Marshall sued and the lawsuit dragged on for several years eventually reaching an out-of-court settlement. These were trying years for Hedren and Marshall since they needed the money to feed the big cats for their film Roar (1981), the financial stress would result in their divorce. Many years later, Blatty ran into Hedren at a party and said Hi. She walked away from him, without acknowledging him. In her 2016 memoir, she wrote that the executives at Universal wanted to submit her name for Best Actress Oscar for her superb performance in Marnie (1964), but the film's director Alfred Hitchcock blocked it as a retaliatory measure for turning down his sexual advances.

The Academy later awarded Hitchcock an honorary Oscar, and over the years, Hedren's costars from Hitchcock's films and screen-test ( Sean Connery , Jessica Tandy , Martin Balsam ) won Oscars. Yet, the Academy has refused to give Hedren an honorary Oscar, in spite of all her humanitarian work and animal rights activism, suggesting that they remained loyal to Hitchcock, even though he died long ago. Is ambidextrous. She is a Republican. In her 2016 memoir "Tippi", she wrote that President Donald Trump is a celebrity friend. Personal Quotes (13) [on Alfred Hitchcock ] To be the object of somebody's obsession is a really awful feeling when you can't return it. [on 3/1/05, when asked which is her favorite of the Alfred Hitchcock films she starred in] I think Marnie (1964). They were both so different that it's kind of hard to figure out which, but The Birds (1963) was sort of a chase. All of the Hitchcock films have a mystery to them and that sort of thing, but the personality of Marnie was so intriguing.

She was really - poor Marnie. My advice to anyone contemplating acting as a profession is to be independently wealthy or have another vocation as a backup. [ Melanie Griffith ] and [ Antonio Banderas ] are well set, but most actors make a pittance. For years, directors and producers came up to me and said they'd wanted me for a role, but [ Alfred Hitchcock ] wouldn't allow it. The worst was when I found out that François Truffaut had wanted to cast me. I'd never heard a word about it. That one hurt. [on being offered the title role in Marnie (1964) by Alfred Hitchcock ] I was stunned. I was amazed that he would offer me this incredible role and that he would have that kind of faith in me . . . I thought Marnie was an extremely interesting role to play and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. [on working with Sean Connery , her leading man in Marnie (1964)] He was just fabulous, a consummate actor with a great sense of humor. He was practicing his golf swing all the time - a rather profound golfer.

We honored him on June 8, 2006, at the American Film Institute. They asked me to speak about him, which was great fun. It was one of the most wonderful evenings. It is interesting because some of the critics who really panned [ Marnie (1964)] when it came out see it again and it is like they are reviewing an entirely different movie. I think a lot of it was that all those years ago, people were not aware of how a trauma being inflicted upon a child can affect what happens to them as an adult if it isn't properly dealt with. I think there were multiple reasons why they didn't like it. For some reason, the painted backdrops really bothered people forty years ago - that was a big deal for some reason with the critics. I kept thinking "So what, it's a movie!" [In 2006, when asked whether she can watch The Birds (1963) and Marnie (1964) and separate herself from the experience of making them] I can do that now and it is quite a relief, actually.

I can look at it and think "She did a good job!" There were years where I would see things and wish I could do them over but now I can just watch them. They called and asked what I thought about a remake of The Birds (1963) and I thought: 'Why would you do that? Why?' I mean, can't we find new stories, new things to do? When you do a love scene with someone in a movie, you have cameras and lights surrounding you. It's not very romantic, especially considering what I was going through. A lot of people have asked me whether or not I had a fling with Sean Connery during the filming of Marnie (1964), and the answer is no. Marnie was so frigid and cold that she screamed when a man came near her. If I had strong feelings for him in real life, it would have shown through my eyes in the film. I was too dedicated to acting. So, no, I don't really know what it's like to kiss Sean Connery .

[2014, on what it's like being a matriarch of an acting dynasty] It's funny that nobody in of all my ancestors was interested in any of the dramatic arts. None of them. It started with me, then my gorgeous daughter Melanie Griffith , and now my granddaughter Dakota Johnson . Now, we are wondering what my other granddaughter Stella Banderas is going to be doing. She's very cerebral. I would be very anxious to see what happens to her. [on working on the set of The Birds (1963)] One of the ravens was so sweet that Ray [ Ray Berwick ] wouldn't teach him all the bad things to do, like peck people and dive-bomb. That raven became my buddy. He'd come up and sit in my dressing room on the set, play with my makeup, and throw it on the floor. I'd walk around on the set with him on my shoulders. [In 2016] My marriages were all good - until they weren't. But I got something good out of each of them. My first husband Peter Griffith was younger than me and I've never understood why I married him but he gave me Melanie Griffith .

My second husband Noel Marshall gave me my love of animals. My third husband Luis Barrenechea was everything I wanted in a man, except that he was an alcoholic and that was unbearable. I'd love to have a man in my life and to go on dates but I'll never marry again. I like living alone. I'm vain and I'm also selfish. Who would want that in a woman? Salary (2) Melanie Griffith And Tippi Hedren Have A Precious Mother Daughter Moment (PHOTO) | The Huffington Post Melanie Griffith And Tippi Hedren Have A Precious Mother Daughter Moment (PHOTO) 01/28/2013 08:18 am ET | Updated Apr 23, 2013 Michelle Persad Fashion Editor, The Huffington Post. Some mothers pass down their good looks, others pass along their unique talents and a few give their offspring their charisma. It seems as though Melanie Griffith got all these traits from her mom, Tippi Hedren . Both Hedren and Mrs. Antonio Banderas are famous actress' who have taken Hollywood by storm, winning Golden Globes for their performances on the big screen.

The mother-daughter duo not only have skills when it comes to acting, but they both have a great sense of style that can rival just about anyone. In this 1966 photograph we see the pair sporting gorgeous '60s dresses. Melanie wears a paisley shift dress , while her mother dons a long-sleeved lace number. Although this photograph was taken over 45 years ago, both looks are still very much in fashion. It seems as though shiny locks are another genetic trait they share, as both ladies could walk right into a shampoo commercial. We wonder what their secret is? Getty Images/Max B. Miller Tippi Hedren - Animal Rights Activist, Film Actress, Television Actress - Biography.com Famous People Born in Minnesota Synopsis Tippi Hedren was born in Minnesota in 1930. As a young girl she began a modeling career that later took her to New York and Los Angeles. In the early 1960s her role in a television commercial caught the eye of famed director Alfred Hitchcock, who signed her to a contract and gave her the lead in his films The Birds and Marnie.

While her roles earned her critical acclaim and made her star, Hedren’s relationship with Hitchcock quickly soured and the two parted ways. While continuing her work in television and film, Hedren has also devoted a good portion of her time to a range of charities, most significantly with animal-rights and wildlife-conservation causes. In the early 1970s she founded the Shambala Preserve in Southern California as a sanctuary for rescued exotic cats, and in 1983 she founded the Roar Foundation to continue her work with animals. During her career, she has received countless awards for both her acting and charitable endeavors. Hedren has been married three times and is the mother of actress Melanie Griffith. Early Life Nathalie Kay Hedren was born on January 19, 1930, in New Ulm, Minnesota. Her father, who ran a general store in the nearby town of Lafayette, gave his daughter the nickname “Tippi”—Swedish for “little girl”—when she was a baby. While she was still a young girl, Hedren’s good looks helped launch her career as a model, and during high school she appeared in local advertisements and fashion shows.

However, by her junior year her father’s failing health led the family to leave Minnesota for the more temperate climate of Southern California. They settled in San Diego, where Hedren finished her secondary education at Huntington Park High School. Following her graduation in 1950, Hedren began to study art at Pasadena City College. That same year, she also landed her first film job, with a bit part in The Petty Girl (1950). But despite these budding interests, Hedren remained intent on a career in modeling, and in 1951 she left California for New York City. Rising Star Success came quickly for the attractive Hedren, who was soon gracing fashion magazine covers. She also found love soon after her arrival, and in 1952 she married a young actor named Peter Griffith. His career peaked with a few appearances on Broadway and, like his marriage to Hedren, would not prove lasting, but the same would not be true for his wife, or for their daughter, future actress Melanie Griffith , who was born in 1957. After their divorce in 1960, Hedren returned to California with Melanie, poised for a major breakthrough.

Settling in the Los Angeles area, Hedren found work acting in television commercials. In late 1961, her ad for a diet drink was aired during an episode of the Today Show and caught the eye of Alfred Hitchcock . The famed British director was so taken with Hedren that he quickly signed her to a seven-year contract and gave her the lead role in his 1963 classic The Birds. A popular and critical smash, the film propelled Hedren to stardom and won her a Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer. Tippi Hedren poses with a raven between scenes of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds, (Photo Bettmann / Contributor via Getty Images ) Hitchock Films Following the success of The Birds, Hitchcock cast Hedren in the lead for his next film, Marnie (1964), which also starred Sean Connery . However, despite outward appearances, Hitchcock and Hedren’s relationship behind the scenes had become much more complicated.

According to Hedren, Hitchcock was so angered by her rejection of his advances, during the filming of both The Birds and Marnie, that he persistently subjected her to a range of sexual and mental harassment, which she would later refer to as being like "a mental prison.” His behavior eventually became so unbearable to Hedren that she refused to work with Hitchcock, who vengefully—and successfully, for a time—set out to ruin her career. However, after Hedren used her newly won star power to land roles in two separate television series, Hitchcock finally gave up, and in 1966 he finally sold her contract to Universal Studios. Though the details of Hitchcock’s mistreatment of Hedren remained a secret at the time, they came to light in two biographies published after his death, The Dark Side of Genius (1983) and Spellbound by Beauty (2008). The latter title would become the primary resource for the 2012 HBO film The Girl, starring Sienna Miller as Hedren and Toby Jones as Hitchcock.

A New Passion Freed from Hitchcock’s control, Hedren worked to get back on track, appearing alongside Marlon Brando and Sophia Loren in Charlie Chaplain ’s final film as a director, the 1967 comedy A Countess from Hong Kong. Unfortunately the film was a critical failure and marked the beginning of a period of stagnation in Hedren’s career, during which she appeared in just a few low-profile films and television series, including Mister Kingstreet’s War (1971) and The Harrad Experiment (1973), which were produced by her second husband, Noel Marshall, whom she had married in 1964. However, it was also during this period that Hedren’s film work to her to Africa, where she first became enamored of exotic cats and grew concerned about their exploitation and mistreatment. Inspired to act, in the early 1970s Hedren began what would become a lifelong mission working with wildlife charities to assist in their rescue and protection by purchasing land north of Los Angeles to establish the Shambala Preserve as a sanctuary. A decade later, she established Roar Foundation to continue her conservation work.

Since its inception, Shambala has sheltered hundreds of rescued animals and Hedren has received numerous awards for her efforts, from such organizations as the ASPCA and Wildhaven. Hedren’s animal work also led to the production of the wildlife thriller Roar (1981), directed by husband Noel Marshall (whom she would divorce in 1982) and featuring Hedren and her young daughter, Melanie Griffith. Hedren has also been involved with numerous other charity organizations, including the March of Dimes, the American Heart Association and international relief groups. Tippi Hedren during the 34th Annual AFI Lifetime Achievement Award: A Tribute to Sean Connery at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood in 2006, (Photo by Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic ) Tireless But despite her tireless philanthropic efforts, Hedren has continued to find time to act as well. Among her television credits over the last few decades are appearances in series such as Murder, She Wrote, Chicago Hope, CSI and Cougar Town, and notable films she has acted in include Pacific Heights (1990), Citizen Ruth (1996) and I Heart Huckabees (2004).

In 1985 Hedren married for a third time, but divorced again in 1995. She was engaged to a veterinarian in 2002, but their relationship ended in 2008. Hedren now lives in a house built on the Shambala Preserve, so she can be close to her beloved animals. Related Videos Fact Check We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us ! Citation Information A Former Sex Kitten, Tippi Hedren's Daughter Melanie Griffith Decides Her Racy Past Was for the Birds A Former Sex Kitten, Tippi Hedren's Daughter Melanie Griffith Decides Her Racy Past Was for the Birds Email It is an oft-told tale in Hollywood that too much too soon brings anguish—and for years Melanie Griffith, daughter of Tippi (The Birds) Hedren, seemed a classic case in point. Precociously beautiful, wild and by 15 a contender for stardom through sizzling roles in such films as Night Moves and The Drowning Pool, she was leading what she calls a “bleary” life of sex, drugs and booze.

“I had the body of a woman, the feelings of a woman, but I was just a headstrong baby,” she says. “When you’re like that, people let you get away with a lot. But it all catches up with you.” For Melanie, the classic ending seems to have been averted. Three years ago she met Steve “Rocky” Bauer, the young actor who scored big last year in Scarface. By the time they were married in May 1982, he had helped her face up to her life. “I spent a year and a half struggling with myself, saying I didn’t have a problem,” says Melanie, who first sought help shortly before meeting Bauer. “I’m really a recovering alcohol-drug addict,” she says with a dismissive laugh. Then she adds, dead serious, “If you get on the treadmill, it’s tough to get off. Few do. I was one of the lucky ones.” At the advanced age of 26, Melanie Griffith is making a comeback. To be sure, she is hardly returning as Saint Joan. In the thriller Fear City, made last November, she plays a Manhattan stripper, a role that involves nudity.

In Body Double, an almost assuredly X-rated opus from Brian De Palma, she plays a porn queen (having beaten out several “adult-film” actresses for the part); in that one, which just completed filming, she is called upon for a masturbation scene. Melanie knows all that may stir memories of her free-living past but, she says, “People have to look deeper than the surface. I’m nothing like what I am in the movies. I’m just acting.” Only 4 years old when she arrived in L.A. with her mother, a former New York model discovered by Alfred Hitchcock, Melanie grew up in the rarefied atmosphere that Hollywood kids take for granted. Hitchcock, who frequently visited the house, gave Melanie a unique present on her 6th birthday: a tiny pine coffin in which a miniature of her mother was laid out. (“That was really sick,” says Melanie.) By then Tippi had long since divorced Melanie’s father, Peter Griffith (now a real estate man in the Virgin Islands). She soon married film producer Noel Marshall, and Melanie grew up on a 200-acre Acton, Calif.

ranch with Marshall’s three sons, a sister and a small menagerie of lions, tigers and elephants. In her teens Melanie harbored the notion that her real mother was Marilyn Monroe. She had been born in New York’s Doctors Hospital shortly after Marilyn had lost her own baby there and had actually been cuddled by Monroe. “I didn’t look like my mother then, so I fantasized that when Marilyn held me, God switched me over, and I was really her child,” she remembers. As a gorgeous 15-year-old, she began modeling. Nothing very advanced about that, she thought: “By 14 half of my girlfriends had had abortions.” She also started living with actor Don Johnson, seven years her senior, and soon was being singled out for films that showcased her as a wanton teenage siren. By the time she finally got a wholesome role—as a beauty contestant in Smile, at 16—it was too late to save her reputation. “I got libeled a lot,” she says. “I’d read things about this long-legged nymphet, and I couldn’t make sense of it all.” Her relationship with Johnson burned out after four years, at which time they promptly got married.

Recalls Melanie: “We thought if we were married and it still didn’t work, we’d divorce.” They did, the same year. Melanie admits her life-style at that time was pretty fast: “Sure, I used to do drugs, I used to drink. I was wild. I could do anything I wanted, and I did.” After the divorce, her life got even faster. She dated Ryan O’Neal, among other Hollywood sex heavies, and made a string of Grade B films. Recalls Bruce Cohn Curtis, who produced her 1977 Joyride, “She was the Debra Winger of the ’70s—a man’s woman.” To develop her talent she enrolled in classes with Stella Adler but, she says, “She scared me to death. I didn’t want to be berated.” Her life took on more ominous tones in 1977 when, while filming Roar, a jungle epic, in California, she was mauled by a 400-pound lion. Traces of scar tissue are still visible on her face. But then she also had emotional problems.

“It was a tough period in her life,” says mom Tippi, who is now divorced from Marshall and is writing a book about big cats, which she still keeps on the ranch. “She needed consoling and to know she had talent.” Three years later Melanie was hit by a car at a crosswalk on Sunset Boulevard. She suffered a fractured arm and had amnesia for several days. That second brush with death brought some soul-searching. “Everything came crashing down,” says Melanie. “I thought of the accident as God’s way of telling me to slow down and figure out what to do with my life.” It was during her recovery period, when she was playing a recruit in a TV film called She’s in the Army Now, that Melanie met Bauer, one of her co-stars. The Cuban-born actor, 27, got her thinking “more intellectually” about her craft, she says. Shortly after the relationship got serious, they took off together for New York to study with Stella Adler. This time Melanie was determined to take the criticism. The couple, who were wed at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York, now live in West Hollywood and talk of having children once Melanie gets her career in hand.

She recognizes that she must “go through a period of proving myself” to studio execs who recall her earlier flakiness, and she plans to enroll at UCLA to get the liberal arts degree she never tried for. “Everything happened very quickly to me,” she says, “and I just have to accept the fact I have had more experience than most 26-year-olds. But I’m in control of my life now, and I feel good about it.” She does not blame the town where she was raised for her trials. “I don’t know if Hollywood is a good or bad place—it’s up to the individual,” she says. “Rocky and I don’t plan to raise our kids here, though.” Show Full Article Tippi Hedren Tippi Hedren Tippi Hedren's Biography in the Internet Movie Database. Tippi Hedren's Internet Movie Database Filmography entry. Icy blonde actress and former model, who is known primarily for her leading roles in two Hitchcock films, The Birds (1963) and Marnie (1964).

While doing a commercial on the Today Show, Hedren was discovered by Hitchcock who put her under personal contract, but her career never quite took off after her smashing debut and followup in Marnie. Charles Chaplin cast her with Sophia Loren and Marlon Brando in ill-fated The Countess From Hong Kong (1967) and she appeared in several more features with roles tapering off in the 1970s and 80s. In Tiger by the Tail (1968) she played a socialite whose Vietnam vet boyfriend recruits her to help find a killer, and in the tepid The Harrad Experiment (1973) she is mistress of an experimental sex school. She then starred opposite daughter Melanie Griffith under the direction of then-husband Noel Marshall in Roar (1981), a docudrama slanted around the preservation of African wild life. (Mother and daughter reunited for the tenant thriller Pacific Heights, 1990). In the 80s and 90s Hedren appeared in the occasional TV project, but devoted the majority of her time to the Shambala Foundation in Antelope Valley California, a retirement facility for animal performers.

Tippi Hedren, Melanie Griffith and a 400-Pound Lion -- at Home SHARE Photos of Tippi Hedren, her teenage daughter, Melanie Griffith, and Neil, a 400-pound mature lion who had the run of their California home. Tippi Hedren , perhaps most famous for her role in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds, is an actress of formidable gifts. Hitch himself said, when directing her in that classic film, that Hedren had “a faster tempo, city glibness, more humor [than another frequent Hitchcock heroine, Grace Kelly]. She displayed jaunty assuredness . . . and she memorized and read lines extraordinarily well.” Now 84, Hedren remains active in showbiz—for example, appearing in Cougartown (as herself) as recently as 2013. But her role as an animal-rights activist and conservationist might well be Hedren’s most lasting legacy. For decades, her Roar Foundation and the animal sanctuary, Shambala Preserve, in California have advocated for big (and not so big) cats—from lions and leopards to bobcats and servals—and she’s been honored with a host of humanitarian and conservation awards through the decades.

In 1971, LIFE photographer Michael Rougier spent time with Hedren; her teenage daughter, Melanie Griffith (from Hedren’s first marriage, to Peter Griffith), her then-husband, the agent and movie producer, Noel Marshall; and others at their home in California. Also in attendance: Neil, a 400-pound mature lion, who occasionally slept in the same bed as Griffith and, as these pictures attest, had the run of the house, from the kitchen to the living room to the swimming pool. Hedren has since acknowledged that it was “stupid beyond belief” to put her family at risk by allowing an animal with “no conscience or remorse genes” to roam free. On that, at least, we can all agree—even if these pictures make Neil look like the world’s biggest pussycat. Liz Ronk, who edited this gallery, is the Photo Editor for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LizabethRonk .

Tippi Hedren, 82, arrives at a Beverly Hills premiere looking the image of her daughter Melanie Griffith | Daily Mail Online comments There may be 28 years between them but actress Tippi Hedren bore a remarkably youthful resemblance to her actress daughter Melanie Griffith last night. The veteran actress, 82, arrived at a Beverly Hills premiere looking svelte in a chic black dress and tights. With a glowing complexion and amazingly few lines on her face, Tippi looked stunning at the screening of Carol Channing: Larger then Life. Spitting image: Tippi Hedren, 82, bore a remarkable resemblance to her daughter Melanie Griffith as she arrived a premiere in Beverly Hills yesterday And at last weekend's Golden Globes, it was clear to see where Tippi's 54-year-old daughter had got her looks. It was very much a case of like mother like daughter as Melanie Griffith arrived looking sophisticated in a sleek black floor length dress with belt. Her husband Antonio Banderas, was one of the presenters at the ceremony, held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

Like mother like daughter: Tippi's face looked as youthful as Melanie's, pictured at the Golden Globes last week Melanie is Tippi's only daughter by her first husband, actor Peter Griffith. After her starring role in The Birds in 1963, Tippi went on to film Marnie the following year. She now concentrates on her non-profit Roar Foundation and the Shambala Preserve, located north of Los Angeles, which provides sanctuary for exotic animals who have suffered mistreatment or neglect. Svelte: Melanie looked stylish as she arrived at the Beverly Hilton on Sunday, where husband Antonio Banderas was presenting Meanwhile, Tippi's working relationship with Hitchcock will be documented in a new film starring Sienna Miller as the actress. The Girl, to be screened next year, will show how an infatuated 62-year-old Hitchcock sexually harassed the 31-year-old blonde starlet and tried to control every aspect of her life – both on and off screen. The film will also star Toby Jones as Alfred Hitchcock and Imelda Staunton as the director's long suffering wife Alma.

Famous role: Tippi infamously starred in Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds as the socialite who becomes the victim of vicious bird attacks

Question: Who is the actress daughter of Tippi Hedren?
Answer: Melanie Griffith